Connor and Brigid
Human male and female (respectively). Created 1 Fir'mo', LY 1, in (what would eventually be) First Village. Died LY 52. "The Book of Connor and Brigid" is the first book of the O'Gas. Connor and Brigid are traditionally referred to as the first two people on The Land, created by God the same day that He created the planet. Certainly, they were the first people to marry. In truth, there were originally more people on the land than just two (the exact number is unknown, though many speculate it to have been fifty). While everyone who existed on the Land in that time presumably spoke with God, Connor and Brigid were the ones in charge of writing down their conversations, in what eventually became the first book of the O'Gas, as well as keeping track of the passage of time, and various other matters. Theirs are the only conversations with God from that time which are recorded, and in fact none of the names of their contemporaries are known. Because of this, it is common for many Landians to believe Connor and Brigid truly were the only two people, in the beginning. This belief is becoming less common of late, due to information provided by Ginger Protestant during the 913 Pilgrimage (to both Plist and Monab), though her mention of the existence of others from Day One was not the primary revelation of what has become her most famous contribution to the O'Gas. The far more revolutionary assertion she made is that Connor, Brigid, and all the others were not created as adults, as had always been assumed, but rather as babies; and that the conversation with God that had always been assumed to have happened on Day One didn't actually happen until years later. (There are, however, no plans to change the date on the first passage of their Book, in large part due to the fact that there's no way to know when precisely the conversation occurred. Though it has been pointed out that it seems odd Connor and Brigid, keepers of the Calendar of the Land, never bothered to date their own entries; they are the only spirit-talkers not to have done so. Of course, at the time they had no idea their writings would later be included in religious or historical texts, having no concept of religion or history.) Ginger claims she learned these things from God Himself, though the details of their supposed conversation are decidedly vague, and many spirit-talkers, particularly within The Order, are dubious of this claim, at best, while others outright deny it. There are, of course, many who gladly accept it as truth, though most of these people are Protestants. Regardless of whether you believe the original version of Connor and Brigid's story or the newly revised version, the fact remains that all we know of the earliest times of the Land comes from their writings, which were passed down over the next several generations. In LY 100, Brist introduced the concept of religion to the world, and began writing down records of his own conversations with God, Lucifer, and other spirits. In 105, Brist was joined by several other spirit-talkers, and they all combined their writings into the first copy of the O'Gas. Each spirit-talker would have his or her own Book in the O'Gas, and the writings of Connor and Brigid were included as the first Book. Because of this, much of what exists in our history books is taken directly from the Book of Connor and Brigid. In fact, much of the Land's culture was instituted by Connor and Brigid themselves, including our calendar, clock, several holidays, methods of naming things (including first and foremost the Land itself), our concept of marriage, etc. From their writings we learned that God admitted His own imperfection, a thing which apparently He has not done on other worlds (for more on this, see Mattholomew Protestant). We also learned from their Book of the existence of other worlds with sentient life, and a vague sense of cosmology, and God explained the existence of subwords. We learned to be forward-thinking, and to understand that our race (that is, Landians) will continue to spread out across the world and eventually the Universe, meeting other races. God also taught the first people to make things for themselves, including clothes, shelter, various crude tools, and such. He taught them to read and write. He mentioned to them an outside force, a corrupter of his worlds (who later turned out to be Lucifer). He told them that life was meant to be enjoyed, and that everyone should do whatever they can to help one another enjoy life. He encouraged love, friendship, art, play, and even introduced various elements of Terran culture, as the planet Earth was of particular interest to them. (He also admonished Landians to be wary of cultural appropriation.) God also explained some of the physiological differences between Landian humans and Terran humans. There were a few cosmetic differences in particular that He made clear were arbitrary "artistic" choices on His part, as a Creator, and those choices should not be construed as indicative of some preference. There are a wide range of differences between the many different sentient races on the many worlds of the Universe, and no given physical trait should be considered superior or inferior to any other trait. In particular, His explanation of these things was inspired by the fact that both Connor and Brigid found it odd to learn that on Earth, men and women both grow hair on their legs, but on the Land, only men do. Odder still, on Earth, many women choose to shave their leg hair, while many others choose not to. God said one choice wasn't better or worse than the other, an assertion which Connor and Brigid agreed with. And they laughed at the idea of Terrans worrying about such silly things. Category:People Category:Culture